Midwinter? It feels more like October

When I let the dogs out this morning, the sun still hadn’t put in an appearance.

It should have been bitter cold, and it was a bit frosty out there, but nothing like what you would expect in the middle of January.

The sky was crystal clear and the stars looked close enough to reach out and touch. In the southeast, the sky was turning a beautiful shade of pink, blue and orange in preparation for the sunrise.

Mornings are the best time of day in mid-winter. The colors out there are fantastic, full of pinks and blues and glowing white [when we have snow]. These days we have to settle for everything being covered in a thin coating of frost, especially the bushes along the river bank.

It’s chilly out there in the early mornings, but not so bad that you can’t stand out there for a bit and enjoy it all.

These nights have been pretty frosty, but the days have been unseasonably warm since the beginning of the year. Everyone keeps saying “Isn’t it beautiful out?”

Well everybody except the skiiers, snowmobilers, and snow lovers – and poor Brent of course, who hasn’t been able to use that plow since last March…

I can’t stand slippery, icy roads. I would probably miss it, but I could also live without snow, although I do like it around Christmas time.

The granddaughters however are a completely different story. They can’t wait for winter and snowstorms. The last time we got a quarter inch of the white stuff they were outside for two hours playing in it. They are definitely snow bunnies.

Granddaughter Alea is one of those for sure. All the way home from school today she grumbled that they were “never going to get to use their snowmobile…” [They got a used one for Christmas.] Last week it was mumbling over ice skates and sleds that weren’t getting any use so far this year…

I guess I used to be that way too. I remember my sleds, skis and skates usually got quite a workout between Christmas and the end of March when it all finally started to melt. It seems like we always had a lot of snow back then…and I don’t remember feeling the cold like I do these days.

In fact one of the things I like best about winter is sitting here in the office next to the wood burner. That’s my favorite winter pastime actually.

Well, It may not be scarf and glove weather, but the sky in the mornings still looks like January out there to me. My little jaunts with the puppies is enough winter to keep me happy.

We certainly can’t complain about the abundance of sunshine so far this winter. Usually the days this time of year are mostly cloudy and gloomy.

It was so nice out there today, I was tempted to take a break and go sit in the sunshine…